Lilith and the valuing of the Divine Feminine
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One of the aspects of the work of James Eshelman and the Temple Of Thelema that I have been consistently most impressed by has been the respect towards, and the honouring and valuing (as mentioned in the introduction to Pearls Of Wisdom) of the feminine. It resonates closely with primary themes and motivations in my own work.
When it comes to Thelema, there is one basic level which requires the focus on the message rather than the messenger - the avatar rather than the man - in moving beyond the occasional sexism of the man Crowley and to focus upon the gender equality and the valuing of the Divine Feminine within Thelema. Dare I use the "f word" and state that there is a potential for a kind of spiritual feminism within Thelema which I personally find of significance. The sometimes obnoxious statements of the man Crowley, however, do pale in comparison with the large culture of sexism with the Old Aeon religious structures.
In Babalon we have what could be seen as reclamation of aspects of the Feminine which have been suppressed and vilified during the previous Aeon.
What I am wondering though, is from this viewpoint, how can one view Lilith? In Qabalah, she appears as embodying the qlippoth of Malkuth (and in some cases of Yesod). The ordeal of nephesh called the ordeal of the siren appears connected to her. Crowley's statement that this involves an actual woman is more than a little sexist, though treating that as one possible manifestation of the "siren", I can appreciate that.
All that said, a brief looking into the history of Lilith, and it seems that the name can mean (or originates from) either "night" or "air", and that there is a connection possible with Ishtar and Inanna.
Is it possible that Lilith was a goddess, subsequently vilified by a patriarchy? Can she be legitimately reclaimed and reinstated to a rightful original place as an aspect of the Divine Feminine? Or is she really genuinely qlippothic and/or demonic?
I'm curious and uncertain about this, while I wonder on the one hand if Lilith was a Goddess devalued by a misogynistic culture, on the other hand I am cautious about tending towards a kind of "positive sexism" by assuming that all female figures in the magical system are positive and divine. -
Well, Lilith functions as the archetype of the Emasculating Feminine.
If you redeem that particular name to mean something else, you still need something to function as that archetype simply because there really is that to watch out for - psychologically, the dominance of the unmastered unconscious over the self-directing consciousness.
I consider myself a feminist, but that doesn't mean I consider the "emasculating feminine" not to exist. It exists both in the psychological inner world as well as in the outer world of people.
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Correct. There is misandry as much as misogyny. Plus, men and women both have the (likely) potential of a vulnerable, pathological relationship to their instincts in addition to any more positive relationship.
The concept among the Q'lippoth is this: Malkuth is The Bride. Therefore, the demonic form of Malkuth is The Demon Bride.
Whether you call her Lilith or something else is a more open topic of discussion. I think the thing to get over is the idea that all metaphysical beings of the same name are the same being. Mikhael archangel of the Sun is neither Mikhael angel of Mercury nor Mikhael archangel of Fire (at least: not necessarily the same archangel, and clearly the angel and archangel are not the same being). Samael the Q'lippothic ruler in Hod is not the same Samael that is elsewhere an angel of wisdom and power.
So, the debate of, "Was Adam's legendary first wife Lilith a bitch or a just an enlightened modern woman that the patriarchy put in place" isn't necessarily the same discussion as, "So whatabout calling Lilith q'lippothic?" I suspect these questions of gotten concatenated here to something like, "Hey, should we go along with calling Adam's first wife (who probably was just a self-responsible babe) Q'lippothic?"
Hillary Clinton is not Kate Clinton.